League leaders Burnley too good for spirited Tigers

Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 3 Burnley

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 17,271

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

The last time Burnley were beaten in the league was Bonfire Night – and as they extended this run thanks to a hat-trick from loan star Nathan Tella, the closest thing to fireworks for the City fans for the vast majority of this game was the pre-match flamethrowers.

The runaway league leaders barely broke into a sweat as they both attacked and defended in numbers and, while the Tigers had their moments and were far from poor, the sheer gulf in class was telling.

Following the gut-wrenching injury to Benjamin Tetteh at Coventry, Liam Rosenior shook up his starting 11 once again, with Adama Traore making his full debut and Oscar – perhaps surprisingly, given his belter of a goal last Saturday – on the bench.

Just over a couple of minutes in, Burnley signalled their intent as Tella delivered a dangerous cross from the right, and Alfie Jones was forced to slice it clear – it looked goalbound for a few heart-in-mouth seconds. From the corner, Ashley Barnes headed wide.

Moments later a clash in the box led to a lengthy injury delay as captain Lewie Coyle lay prone in the six-yard area, Jones instantly gesturing for the physios to come on. While the Burnley players casually played kickabout with a couple of balls on the pitch (in hindsight, a sign of things to come), Coyle gradually got to his feet and returned to the action.

The Tigers did enjoy a brief period of pressure after this, but Burnley cleared any danger with ease. Callum Elder delivered a pass into the area, which was met by Traore, but he could only head well wide of the right post.

The impressive Malcolm Ebiowei did well to force a corner in the 12th minute, but Burnley again snuffed out any hint of a scoring opportunity.

Burnley’s first corner in the 17th minute went over Coyle at the near post and straight into Karl Darlow, before Sean McLoughlin put in a brilliant tackle to avert an almost certain goal from Barnes, who was advancing down on the left.

In the 25th minute, Coyle floated an excellent long-range ball to Dimitri Pelkas in the middle of the area, but he was well offside, and the flag went up as his header went well wide of the target anyway.

Coyle went down again in the box shortly after, prompting another delay as the physios returned to the field. Again, he gingerly got back on his feet and made his way back, clearly determined to carry on.

Things were somewhat cagey at this stage – but one sensed that Burnley were merely cruising in second gear. In the 35th minute, an unmarked Vitinho was allowed to fizz a cross across the goalmouth which Tella was nearly able to flick in, before the offside flag was raised once again.

Then Burnley finally pulled the trigger in the 43rd minute through Tella, who picked up the ball wide on the right and planted it under Darlow at the near post. Elder had been complaining of a foul in the build-up, but it was an impressive finish by the Southampton loanee.

At half-time, Oscar replaced Pelkas, and the Tigers began the second 45 in spirited fashion. A couple of minutes in, Elder flung the ball into Ebiowei, but he couldn’t connect with it. It fell to Traore, who kicked at thin air right in front of goal. Oscar headed over moments later.

In the 50th minute, Anass Zaroury flashed a shot across goal from the left, before Coyle went down in the area for the third time. He now had to concede his race was run, and was replaced by Greg Docherty, Jones taking the captain’s armband.

Ebiowei made a great run into the right-hand side of the box, shrugging off a challenge and forcing a save from Arijanet Muric.

Then a mistake from Muric nearly allowed Ebiowei in, but his shot from the edge of the area took a deflection off a defender and ended up comfortably in the hands of the Burnley keeper. One sensed that it might take a stroke of luck of this sort for City to find the equaliser.

But City’s luck ran out in the 59th minute when Tella bagged his second, driving home Ian Maatsen’s cross from the edge of the six-yard area.

As the driving rain swirled around the MKM Stadium, the noise was now all from the visiting fans in the north-east corner, taunting the home fans with “You’re getting mauled by the Burnley…”

In the 62nd minute, Elder and Traore made way for Jacob Greaves and Ozan Tufan. Then another great touch from Ebiowei allowed him to evade his marker and play in Tufan, but the latter’s pot shot from 12 yards went tamely towards Muric.

Barely 10 minutes later, Tella had his hat-trick, after a mistake by Greaves allowed him to split the defence open and ram home for 0-3. “Sign him up, sign him up, sign him up…” sang the Burnley fans.

Oscar had a decent chance saved in the 81st minute, and Docherty shot straight at Muric four minutes later as the Tigers put on bit of a late pressure. And in the third minute of injury time, with thousands of the 17,000-plus home fans having long headed towards the exits, Tufan scored a consolation – smashing a shot into the roof of the net after being played in by Docherty.

It was a small consolation, but a deserved one. A performance like this against practically any other team in the Championship might have seen the Tigers come away with something, but Burnley are strolling back into the Premier League and there’s no real shame in defeat to them.

City had six shots on target – double Burnley’s tally. The trouble was, that man Tella scored them all…